First of the Thirdborn
by Artimaeus
Summary: For two years after Kerrigan took control of the swarms, the ceasefire held. Then Duran's Zerg Protoss hybrids began to emerge. But with their power still in its infancy, the newborn hybrids must scramble for allies as the sector charges to war.
1. Intro

***Author's Note: This is a revised version of a story that I have already published to another website (starcraft .org/user/mutalisk332). That sight is currently down for maintenance, but in case someone recognizes the story, I just want it to be clear that I am not stealing anyone's intellectual property but my own.**

**Also, I came up with this storyline a long time before StarCraft 2 was announced, and I'm hereby disregarding any cannon that the new game (or any of the literature that goes with it) establishes. Sorry to be such a bother.***

* * *

I often wonder what I would be if tiny things had been different, what led me to the choices I made, and what the universe might have become. Perhaps my race was doomed from the beginning. I had always assumed that the gods knew what they were doing, that their plan was flawless, but not foolproof, and that it was our mistakes that brought their plan to ruins. Looking back, I can't help but wonder whether we were wrong to assume they had a plan at all, that their actions were thought through, and the repercussions well considered.

Who can know?

Well, who can know better than I?

I was the first of my kind, or at least the first of my kind to survive long enough to earn mention in gruesome ordeal of history. I saw the Zerg Protoss hybrid race rise from its test tube and find a place in the center of a war. I watched, as we became the currency of power, and each faction scrambled to lay claim on our alliance. I witnessed the greatest celestial powers clash together. And as far as I am aware, I am the only one of my kind to survive the final peace.

We were given the power to shape cosmic events, and we were forced to use them. They made us powerful, yes. But in doing so, they hollowed out the mold of our slavery. They made us warriors, and by so doing, they prevented us from ever living at peace. Perhaps, had we been more powerful, we would not have needed to take sides. Had we been less powerful, perhaps sides would not have been forced upon us.

I wonder sometimes why the creators were inspired to create. Did they create me with some grand purpose in mind? Or did they look to find their own purpose in me? It's ironic then, that I should spend so much time reflecting on their intentions, their plans, their motives. Maybe they were just as clueless as I am now. Perhaps my purpose was to give them purpose, creating one big purposeless wheel of purpose: an end unto itself. Maybe everything is an end unto itself, and we are just fooling ourselves when we think otherwise. Does it really matter in the end? Who can know?

Well, who can know better than I?

I am the first and the last of my kind- a kind that lived and died like a supernova, lighting the skies for a brief, violent span, and then faded into the cosmic afterglow. I was the first and the last. I remember everything from the moment my mind discovered its capacity to remember. So here the story is, laid out before my mind's eye: the history, which is now all I have. A past without a future. Perhaps, somewhere in there, the meaning behind it all is hidden for those willing to look hard enough.

How can I know until I try?


	2. Part 1

**"You have something to tell me, cerebrate?"**

**"There is a being on the edge of my consciousness. A mind that I can feel like any of your minions, but that I can not control."**

**"This is how I feel to you, is it not."**

**"In a way, except that our connection is for more intimate. Our thoughts can be shared, though light-years may separate us."**

**"Right… intimate…"**

**"My queen?"**

**"Never mind. So you say you can't communicate with this, whatever it is you've found?"**

**"Exactly, Every time I try to, it slips away from me"**

**"So, what do you propose we do about it?"**

**"There's nothing we can do nothing now. I don't know where this mind is"**

**"I see."**

**"But I may yet be able to gain access to the thing's mind, and find where, or what it is."**

**"Any ideas? Speculation?"**

**"It is hard to tell. But I believe it is a being of great power, possibly superior to your own."**

**"And you say we can do nothing? Be sure you keep me informed."**

**"Yes, my Queen."**

* * *

It was a dark and cold existence. Everything was black, and numb. Did I have a body? What's a body? I could have been alive for eons, or perhaps seconds. But I knew that I was alive... and I knew nothing else. Mist swirled in the corners of my mind; little snippets of thought, which flickered in and out of existence like fireflies in a dark forest. I could hear voices coming from all around, trickling into my synapses like sand in an hourglass. Some were calm, others were happy, and others were fearful. "I will be with you always." "En-taro Adun, good friend!" "Fall Back! They overrun us! Fall back!" "What do you ask of me?" "Blasa Zerg!" And many more like them.

What were these whispers? They were familiar, and yet alien. It was not only their words I was hearing. There were feelings behind them. Emotions. I began to see images, flashes of sight through eyes that I knew were not my own. The visions were just as diverse as the words, and though some were very frightening and gruesome, I felt completely dispassionate, detached from the odd horrors that flashed through my consciousness. A small, red creature was attacking a large, blue and gold being on a trampled field. A Protoss. Milk-white blood dripped from the creature's- the zergling's- claws at they tore into its opponent's flesh. For the briefest moments, I felt the Protoss' pain. Then the vision faded, to be replaced by another.

But then, a new presence entered my mind. It was not like the thoughts of the Protoss. It was larger, consuming, commanding. I felt a sudden urge to attack something, soon followed by sorrow that there was nothing to attack. More visions came, but unlike their predecessors, they were all the same. All carnage. Claws and fangs tore through flesh, but they were my claws, and my fangs. I reveled in the raw, uninhibited joy of ripping and tearing and maming and _killing_. Hundreds of Zerglings were galloped with a single mind. A pack of hydralisks sent volley after volley of razor sharp spines flying towards a burning metal structure. Another creature, this time on a plane of ash, flung itself into a sluggish, robotic body, exploding in a nauseating cloud of green acid, relishing the intense pleasure of his life ending. "For Kerrigan!" Its scream echoed in my head.

Then all visions faded from my mind, and again, there was silence…

* * *

A muffled, feminine voice found my ears, "Test subject 276 is coming out of crio-hibernation. Gene splicing complete. It is conscious."

Those words were different. Not like my visions. They were sound, not thought.

Something felt different. Before I felt nothing, and now I felt something. For a moment I remained motionless, listening for anymore words. "Doesn't look conscious to me," someone said. It was a different voice entirely. It was gruff, a lot deeper, and its pitch changed from word to word. My four eyes snapped open, reviling nothing more than a green haze. Shadows moved in the corners of my eyes. I tried to look around, but found that I could not move my head. My limbs seemed to be immobile as well. The slightest clench of my muscles brought sharp pain.

"The test subject's healing process is accelerating at exponentially. The umbilical tubes are being assimilated into the subject's muscle structure. They must be removed."

As if on cue, intense pain wracked my body. Every second was agony. There was a series of rapid popping sounds, and I passed out.

* * *

I awoke to find myself in a curled on the metal base of a large glass tube. It was rather cramped, and my body took a moment to unravel itself. For the first time, I really had a sense of my own flesh. My body was long and snakelike, its powerful muscles letting me slither around my prison with ease. My torso and tail were covered by a hard, flexible, scaly shell. Two wizened, shrunken legs hung uselessly from my side. From under my hard shoulder blades hung two powerful arms, each ending in four long, opposable digits. Two pares on each hand were divided by two sharp, slender blades that extended from my knuckles, and were beginning to crackle with psionic energy. In the ghostly reflection of my cell's glass, I caught the first glimpse of my face. In all, I resembled one of the blue beings, except for the two serrated mandibles that were attached to my jawbone, and the solid, bony frill on its forehead. Behind the frill, I felt a long tangle of nerve cords, which also were glowing a dull white. My body was covered in bunches of tender, fleshy circles, which seemed to close before my eyes.

Next, I looked around. My stasis cell was in the center of a small metal structure. Three more were adjacent to my own, and each filled with a gelatinous green fluid. The two I could see clearly each contained a being. I could not determine the either one's species because of the innumerable black tubes imbedded in their flesh. Looking upwards, I saw similar tubes hanging limply from my cell's ceiling. I could view a slice of dense foliage through the slightly ajar door. Suddenly, something moved in my peripheral vision.

Sitting in a chair, staring at me in a proud, appraising manner, was a strange species I had never seen before. Its skin, or what I could see of it, was a yellowish pink. The rest of its body was covered in a single piece of white fabric, which looked like it hadn't been changed in a very long time. On top of what I assumed was the head, rested a mop of brown hair. I would have dismissed to alien as little more than a hunk of meat if it weren't for its eyes, cold, thoughtful flecks of brown, which betrayed the advanced mind behind them.

The instant after our eyes met, I felt an overwhelming urge to attack the human. How did I know it was called a human? I hadn't even seen a human before, and yet I knew that I hated them. They were vile, disgusting, inferior creatures, which deserved nothing more than a mauled corpse. Energy shot down my scythes. Overcome with the desire to taste the human's blood, I clumsily lunged in the human's direction. Of course, completely forgot the several inches of glass that separated us. There was a loud crash, and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the metal floor, with the human holding a gun to my head, and several new gashes along my underbelly, face, and arms.

My bloodlust disappeared as quickly as it had come. "That glass was supposed to be unbreakable, you bastard!" The Terran shouted, pressing his weapon closer into my temple.

He was afraid of me. He was terrified. His eyes were wide, and the gun quivered in his hand. Why was he afraid of me? I had just tried to kill him. That gun could kill me. Why didn't he push the trigger? He could kill me, but he doesn't. We stared at each other for a second, until the man pulled his weapon away from my head, though his hand was still trembling. He seemed to be making an effort to control his breath. "Well, we'll wait until my commander gets here, but any funny stuff, now, and I'll blow your brains out."

I slowly nodded as we backed away to opposite corners of the room. "Hey, stay where I can see you." he barked, as I circled around the three intact stasis cells. He was stupid- If I had another attack of bloodlust, he would want something in between us- but I complied in any case. Best not to argue with the point of a gun.

There the two of us sat, across the room from each other. His gun was locked on my head, but I knew he wouldn't shoot. He had some stake in my existence, though exactly why I couldn't say. Where did I come from? I knew nothing of biology, but I was pretty sure that life didn't arise from a stasis cell. Actually, I seemed to know many things that I had no business knowing. It was basic knowledge, the information that you only learn through experience, like the difference between genders, or the meaning behind the sounds I heard. Language. English. It felt like there was a vast repository of knowledge and experience, lying just outside my scull, that I could reach into whenever I needed information. My nerve cords tingled.

Looking up, I found the human talking into his hand, where, I assumed, was a communicator. I could not hear him, but when he noticed I was staring at him, he smiled and nodded, "Aye, sir. Yes? I'll be expecting my pay when you get here. I assure you, he will meet you expectations," he stuffed the communicator in his pocket. "My supervisor will be here momentarily. He would like to meet you."

I nodded once. Pay? Money?

"And I can assure you that you will never see me again once he gets here." He laughed. "I'm gone once he pays me for this little babysitting assignment."

So he was a mercenary. I registered the information, and stored it in the files of my mind. The man relaxed as he continued to chat. It seemed that a huge burden had been lifted from his back. The conversation was very one sided, (I lacked experience to answer from, and a mouth to answer with) but the Human didn't mind. His words were boastful, revolving, for the most part, around his valiant and abundant exploits in battle and with the opposite gender. Perhaps "in" the opposite gender would better describe it. But never the less, I listened intently, even through the more graphic descriptions, my telepathic instinct filtering out the fact from boastful fluff. Though his version of event would have you believe that he'd single handedly defeated half the Zerg broods and slept with every "sexy" human female in the sector, I was able to glean some useful information about this race of creatures.

He probably would have continued talking for hours, had his radio not come to life. "I have completed the warp jump, and will be with you in a few moments," a voice crackled through the speaker.

"All right, I'll expect my pay when you get here," the mercenary replied, winking broadly.

"Of course," the communicator said smoothly, "Over and out."

After a few seconds of silence, I began to hear heavy footfalls from outside. The mercenary heard them too, "Well, I guess this is it," he chuckled "Scourge of the universe, you say?"

That moment, the door to the structure flew open with a crash to reveal another human male. This one had on bulky armor plating, which looked beaten and stained from untold abuse. Holes in it were plugged with a strange, hard bio-mass. His skin was a dark brown, and had a sickly, greenish tint. His eyes were a bright, unnatural gold. But it was neither his eyes, nor his skin, nor his armor that had my attention; it was the large canister rifle he had pointed at the mercenary. And fired. The mercenary's head exploded where the bullet struck, showering the walls around him with blood, marrow, bone and brain matter.

For the briefest moment I felt sorry for him. That was until sight of the human gore brought on another attack of bloodlust. I was prepared for it this time though. I tightened every muscle in my body, forcing my limbs to remain in place, fighting the overwhelming desire to devour the dead man's carcass. After a moment of panting and straining, the attack subsided, leaving me tired and limp on the metal floor.

"You have a very strong will," The man said. It took me a few moments to realize that his lips had not moved while he spoke, such was my state.

"Yes, my child, I can speak into your mind, and you can speak into mine. Try it."

I extended my thoughts towards him, and to my surprise, found that I could feel his consciousness behind his skin. "Why did you shoot that human? What did he do?"

He paused, giving me a curious look before answering, "He was a witness to your birth; an unnecessary witness to your birth. You see, you are far more important in the cosmic order than you realize. If news of your existence fell into the wrong ears, you could wind up dead in a very short amount of time," He smiled, "And we don't want that to happen, now do we?

I stared mutely at the man, waiting for him to continue.

"But surely you have other questions," he said.

"What am I?"

I found the thoughts behind the man's smile unsettling. It was like he has been waiting for an eternity for that exact question. "You are the fulfillment of a dream. You are perfection. You are the product of a vast experiment that would result in ultimate life!"

What a strange thing to be. And what did that make me? "Who's dream?" I asked quietly.

"The Xel'naga."

Xel'naga. I rolled the name around in my mind. It felt deeply familiar.

"Long ago," the man continued, "The Xel'naga created the Protoss, a race gifted with purity of Form. But the Protoss were flawed... Imperfect." He almost spat the thought out, "So the Xel'naga abandoned their firstborn creations, and, in another sector of the galaxy, created the Zerg, a race gifted with purity of essence. But they too were imperfect. Your very existence completes their vision of a pure being. You are a Zerg Protoss hybrid, the product of the two races, pure in both form and essence. You are… perfect."

Form. Essence. Such terms held little meaning for me. I calmly regarded him. "And you are?" I asked, cocking my head.

"I have had many names, my child, but my most recent is Samir Duran. I am a servant of the Xel'naga's vision. I created you to be the father of your race."

The name "Samir Duran" brought unexplainable feelings of hatred and distrust from both sides of my mind "So now what?" I asked cautiously. I could not sense any plots through our shallow mental link, but I could tell he was an expert at hiding his thoughts and feelings in the innumerable folds of his mind.

"That," said Samir Duran, "is up to you. My purpose was to create the hybrids, not control them. Now that my task is complete, I am content to simply watch my children do as they will."

He looked intently at me, as if he was waiting for me to do something. I was incredulous. "You mean I can do anything I wish?" My instincts told me that this man was beyond treacherous, but I could detect no deceit in his eyes or thoughts.

Duran nodded smiling another one of his wide smiles. "And go where you wish. There is a warp gate just outside of this compound."

* * *

**"Zeratul, I wish to bring something to your attention ."**

**"Yes, Executor?"**

**"Many of our high templar and judicators sense an unnatural tremor in the khala. Myself included."**

**"What is the nature of this disturbance?"**

**"There is something in our telepathic network which does not belong."**

**"Forgive me, Executor, it has been a very long time since my mind was linked with the rest of yours. How are you sensing this?"**

**"A single wrong note can be heard above a symphony"**

**"Zerg?"**

**"I can not tell."**

**"Hybrid?"**

**"It is quite possible."**


	3. Part 2

**"Duran? Duran, is that you? I must say, I am surprised to hear from you. It has been too long. Far too long."**

**"My queen, you flatter me with your attendance. It has indeed been too long sense our minds touched."**

**"Do you have nothing to tell me? Or must I ask? Fine, I'll bite. Where the hell have you been the past two years, Duran?"**

**"Shaping the future of the cosmos. And yourself?"**

**"What? I'm afraid, as answers go, that doesn't quite cut it."**

**"I'm sorry if you're unsatisfied, but I do not believe it would be wise for me to go into any further detail."**

**"I don't think you have a choice in the matter, Duran. You were my servant once. I will make you one again. Those who underestimate my will are always the most compliant, in the end."**

**"That is where you are wrong, my queen. My mind is not, nor ever has been, yours for the taking. My will is far stronger than that of you or your pet cerebrates."**

**"Well, who am I to argue? The snake reviles his true colors."**

**"As you have done so many times in the past."**

**"With your help."**

**"I was simply advancing my own agenda. I helped you, and once you were no longer useful to me, I left you at the omega platform."**

**"And I survived."**

**"Yes you did. I must commend you and your cerebrate. I did not expect the battle to leave you the dominant force in this sector."**

**"You double crossing bastard."**

**"Many have said the same of you, my queen. Unfortunately, we will have to finish this conversation later. My work calls."**

**"I will kill you for this, slowly and painfully."**

**"My work is almost finished, Kerrigan. And once it is, my fate will not matter."**

* * *

**"My queen, another being, like the first, has appeared."**

**"And…"**

**"It is strange… I do believe that it is a Zerg and Protoss hybrid! I can't begin to fathom the implications of such a-"**

**"Cut to the chase cerebrate. Can you control it?"**

**"I think I can."**

* * *

The forest felt soft, wet, and springy; a stark contrast to the hard metal of the Terran compound. The soggy, half-rotted leaves pleasantly sunk into the contours of my body. All around me, the jungle was doused in a cozy green glow. Columns of wood towered about me, interspersed with smaller bushes and shrubs, their wide, transparent leaves filtering out every other color. Reaching upward, I plucked a leaf from a low branch and held it above my face, feeling the smooth texture, and seeing the tiny veins threaded through it.

"You are a curious being," Duran said telepathically.

Dropping the leaf on the forest floor, I turned around to face the Terran compound, which looked rather small among the tall, tall trees, Duran stood at the door, his golden eyes staring.

"I'm two hours old," I said, and turned back to a tree trunk. "Can't I be curious?"

I heard a beeping sound behind me. It was Duran's Communicator. "Excuse me," he said aloud, "Yes?"

I turned around, listening to the faint voice from the microphone "Our hybrid is coming out of stasis."

"Excellent." said Duran, "I will be with you shortly. Oh, and I might bring a friend with me,"

"Understood," said the communicator.

Duran gave me a meaningful glance. "Would you like to come with me?" He said telepathically.

"I don't know of anywhere else to go," I answered.

"I thought as much. Follow me." Duran said, walking down a small path through the jungle.

I slithered along a short ways behind him. He seemed to be in a hurry, but I preferred to move slowly, taking in the forest. I soon began to notice the smaller life forms. Bees, ants, beetles, and other insects scurried and buzzed around the plants, going about their tiny, self-centered business, unaware and unconcerned that a "perfect" being was slithering by them. Above me, I could see larger reptilian birds, gliding about the upper canopy. A sizeable lizard scampered across the path directly behind me.

"Please hurry," Duran said, drawing my mind away from the life around me.

Reluctantly, I pulled my attention towards the path ahead. What could possibly be so important to him? When I asked him, he only said, "The birth of a race."

Soon the two of us ran into a clearing, in the center if which, stood a large crystalline structure. My nerve cords began to tingle with a strangely invigorating energy. Leaving Duran behind, I slithered up to it, staring into the intricate lattice of angles and cuts. It was called a pylon, I somehow knew. Duran beaconed, and I pulled my attention reluctantly away. Behind, the crystal, there was a taller golden building, with a crystal of its own suspended beneath a great archway. It was not al all like the Terran structure I was created in, with all of its corroded sides and sharp edges. It was smooth, and graceful, as much an art form as a structure. A gateway.

I followed Duran up a smooth ramp into the heart of the gateway. The gateway's control held the most complex technology I had ever seen (and I had seen a Terran Genetics lab). The walls of the control room were covered in precise wiring and tubing. Four canisters of a white glowing, gas were attached to the circular walls. An intricate crystal was mounted in the center of the room. I part of me Duran was pressing buttons on a sophisticated control panel.

Suddenly, the entire gateway sprang into life. Several rapid pulses of energy originated from the plasma chambers, racing up the walls and converging at the lowest point on the crystal lattice. The enormous gem began to glow and hum with powder. I could feel the structure vibrate. Then, with a quiet boom, a column of energy shot downwards into the center of the central crystal, where it converged with four smaller pis beams. The energy flickered, then rippled, and as my eyes grew wider, a swirling, blue vortex formed in the center of the crystal. A slight breeze blew towards the warp portal. "After you," Duran said with a placid smile, "I will follow."

I only paused long enough to give Duran a curious glance. The energy fascinated me, beaconed me. I longed to touch it, to let it flow through my body, to become one with the psionic forces. My nerve chords tingled. It didn't seem like anything else mattered as I threw myself into the warp rift.

It was the suddenness of it all that startled me. The instant I touched the crystal, I felt as if every atom in my body was being stretched, refracted pulled, split into uncountable pieces and stretched to an infinite length. Then the feeling was gone and I had no body. Currents of energy pulled my consciousness through a blue-black void. The openness was frightening. Only a thin membrane of energy separated me from the trackless void. Colors of all sorts flashed at the edge of my vision, and tiny dots of light, stars, which were barely visible through the bluish haze, were zipping by. Then, with an unpleasant compressed feeling, I was spit back into reality, sprawled on the floor identical control room.

Immediately I could smell a difference in the air. Where was this? Picking myself up, I dutifully waited for Duran in the gateway's corridor. A little less than a minute later, he stepped through this end of the warp gate. He wasted no time. Gesturing for me to follow, he walked towards the Gateway's exit, pulling out his communicator and pressing a button. "I have arrived. Expect me to be with you in a moment,"

Silence.

"Respond."

More silence.

For the first time, I sensed a flicker of doubt in Duran's mind. "What does this mean?" I asked.

"We shall see in a few moments," two of us left the Protoss structure, onto what I now realized was an entirely new world. The doorway opened into a flat, brown plain. There was no life, except for the gray moss that clung desperately to the occasional boulder, and clouds boiled and coiled in the dark sky like water on a stove. The world was lit every few seconds by an enormous bolt of lightning, and then shaken by the resulting thunderclap. I felt like I was watching a battle where neither side could tell the other apart. A distance away, I could see a small, Terran bunker.

Duran seemed unfazed by the weather as he marched towards a metal structure in the distance, his eyes glowing eerily in the gathering darkness. I, however, was not so lucky. The instant I stepped from the gateway's shelter, the wind slammed against me, knocking me off balance. Trying to stay upright, I dug my scythes into the cracked dirt, keeping my eyes fixed on the bunker. Duran, seemingly immune to the wind, walked ahead of me until he reached the overhanging shelter that marked its entrance. There he waited for me to catch up. When I arrived at his side, he said to me, "There is something wrong. I may require your assistance inside the compound."

There was something different about him. He was afraid, not only for his own life, but for mine, and that of his second hybrid. At first I thought that he might need help killing the humans he had hired to defend the hybrids. But why would he fear humans? Why should I fear humans? These were more powerful forces at work. I could tell. A faint laugh echoed in the quiet places of my mind. There was someone else with us.

The two of us stepped into the elevator which led to the structure's lower level. The instant we began our decent, Duran disappeared. Cloaked. Though I could not see him, save for a slight visual distortion, I could still feel our mental link tied as strong as ever. Over the loud, mechanical clanking of the elevator, I heard the soft click of Duran cocking his gun. The lift came to a grinding halt.

"What do you expect? What's wr-"

The doors opened, revealing the bloodiest scene I had ever laid eyes on. The walls of the structure were doused in what once was human. Strips of intestine and assorted gore hung everywhere, glistening. In the center of the carnage, just in font of a shattered containment cell, sat a hybrid, stripping the flesh from an unidentifiable human limb, its hanging, toothed jaws effortlessly spilling the bone's marrow. The sight of human innards brought on another attack of bloodlust. The smell of it filled my nostrils, smothering my senses in a hot red haze. A beast stirred within me. I screwed my eyes shut. Visions of claws, of ripping, of goring, of gutting flashed before me. Hunger clawed at my insides. I tried to suppress it. My muscles were clenched to the point of pain. Desperately I tried to isolate my mind.

I herd a roar, and two muffled gunshots.

I forced my eyes back open. The hybrid had taken two shots form Duran's rifle, one to the shoulder, one to the head. But it was far from dead. The hybrid reared up to its full height, standing on two scaled legs. Heavy muscles flexed, pulling apart its chest cavity to reveal a vast array of sharp needles. The next thing I knew, Duran was slammed against the elevator door and flickered back into vision, three spines protruding from his chest.

What is this?! Why were they fighting each other? My connection with Duran's mind flickered. He was in no state to answer me. Desperately, I reached for the hybrid's mind.

And It's mind attacked back. A monstrous will, far stronger than anything I had ever encountered, plunged into my min, bearing down, its voice overpowering. I couldn't resist. I tried to throw up defenses, but my mind had been weakened by bloodlust. Visions poured over my consciousness. I was before a woman, strong and savagely beautiful, with eyes golden, like Duran's. "Submit!"

No!

"Submit to the Zerg!"

no...

"SUBMIT TO ME!"

I was losing myself. There was no place in my mind I could any longer call my own. I could feel myself groveling. Submitting. But then a third mind entered the fray. It was Duran. "You already have one, but you won't take the other!" He through himself at the invader, battling her back, reclaiming my mind for me.

The remnants of my consciousness began to regroup, reconstructing themselves while duran took the brunt of the assault. A terrible rage boiled inside of me. She had tried to enslave me, to crush everything that I was. All of a sudden, Duran was cut off, but I was ready to defend myself. I lashed out at the alien mind with the full force of my will, attacking, flailing throwing everything against her. My rage was my weapon. For a moment, our two minds battled, and then, slowly, bitterly, I purged her from my consciousness.

Almost immediately I became aware of my surroundings. My eyes flashed open, and fixed themselves on the other hybrid. Its chest cavity was open, about to fire another volley of spines. But I was ready. My rage was focused. Power exploded from my mind, and a swift, blast of raw psychic energy sent the creature flying backwards, spraying spines into the compound's ceiling. It smashed through a desk then lay still on the ground, its entire body crackling with strange orange energy.

But I was not done. The intensity of my mind was beginning to break down the space around me. The air above and around the incapacitated hybrid began to tear, creating tiny rifts in the fabric of space time, through which gushed seeped bands of psionic energy. My eyes began to burn. I focused my wrath on a single rip, pulling, tearing at it until it began to grow. PSIONIC STORM! Blue bolts of psi spilled from the dimensional chasm, forking outwards, vaporizing anything they touched. The lights in the compound flickered and died. By the time my mind had exhausted itself and the storm subsided, the hybrid was little more than a pile of ionized carbon.

Then, my rage evaporated, leaving me tired and numb. I fell onto my scythes. I had just ended a life. It had been so effortless... What did it mean? I was so tired. There was something missing. Something I had grown accustomed to, that I couldn't quite place.

Duran! I whirled around, searching for any sign my maker, but could find nothing in the darkened room. I stood perfectly still, listening. For the first time, I was aware of the storm outside. It sounded so quiet inside the compound. At first, nothing, but then I began to hear a faint dripping sound from the elevator. I crawled over, my eyes scanning the dull shadows cast by my glowing scythes. There, in the elevator, lay a single pool of blood, steadily being filled by an invisible source. Carefully, I prodded around the air with my scythe, until I found a solid patch of nothing. Apparently his cloaking device was working again. I extended my mind towards his but found nothing.

Suddenly, a great weariness took me. My mind felt depleted, drained, wrung dry. I swayed sideways and fell. My face landed in Duran's blood. I didn't care. My eyes flickered. And though I knew I was in danger, that the Zerg swarm would be on their way to this little planet, I simply could not keep going. For the first time in my life, I slept.

* * *

**"Cerebrate, you must immediately prepare your brood for an inter-dimensional warp jump."**

**"You were unsuccessful with the hybrid? What a shame."**

**"Wise-ass me at you're on peril."**

**"Yes, my queen."**

**"You should know that, at the very least, I was able to kill Duran."**

**"A worthy accomplishment, oh queen of the zerg."**

**"Lay it on while you can, Cerebrate. He was a powerful enemy, and he will no longer get in our way."**

**"It is pity he's dead. If he truly is the one behind these hybrids, I would like very much to have interrogated him."**

**"Do you question my judgment in killing him?"**

**"Not at all. I'm merely wishing. This is something humans are known for, is it not?**

**"Well, maybe if you move quickly enough, you'll find him in a state to answer your questions."**

**"My brood will be ready momentarily."**

**"That's more like it. Just remember, the living hybrid is your priority."**


	4. Part 3

**"What is this?"**

**"Those are pylon energy signatures, coming from the forest moon of Bafcel VII"**

**"Is there any record of a Protoss settlement here?"**

**"It wasn't even on the Dark Templar's star charts."**

**"This must be Duran's work."**

**"I agree."**

**"Our arbiters are moving into the moon's atmosphere, and are prepared for a dimensional recall."**

***

A creature, large and ponderous, floated through the void, dragging behind it a trail of clawed tentacles. Venting a stream of pressurized gas, the Zerg Overlord propelled itself forward; it had a task of great importance, and it was no alone. Close behind, another overlord rose lazily upwards from a charred, ashen planet. And behind it, thousands of others, each mind united by a common purpose The swarm drifted farther and farther away from the planet, spiraling around each other for hours in a slow, cosmic dance. As the planet fell into the distance, the overlords spread apart, miles and miles apart, until their combined mass created a gigantic living ring in space. Then, simultaneously, they knew that the time was right. Their minds, fused together and, focused its immense will on a single point of interplanetary space.

And at that point, space bent to accommodate them. It's dimensions began to twist and contort, forming a tiny warp tunnel in the fabric of space time. The tear slowly expanded by centimeters, meters, and then kilometers, until it met the vast ring of overlords that created it.

Then the true bulk of the swarm rose from the planet's surface. Mutalisks, flying worms came first, followed by Guardians and Devourers, acid-spewing behemoths. Following them, were many more overlords, each carrying a battalion of zerg underlings in their armored carapaces. The the brood converged on the warp tunnel and were swallowed, tumbling, falling through the nether-world between the dimensions.

And on a remote, distant planet, many light-years away, my eyes snapped open.

Panic. I needed to escape. This place, this planet, was no longer safe. I knew it, though I didn't know how. No time to think. My eyes darted about the metal bunker. Adrenaline pumping, I lunged forward towards the elevator, but slipped on something hard, warm, and wet, and my face hit the floor hard.

The fall knocked some sense into me. Must keep my head straight. If I lost control, I would become like the dead hybrid. I lay motionless for a short moment, letting my panic slip away. As I calmed myself, my most recent, and bloodiest, memories fell into place. Things had gone so terribly wrong. The hybrid, which Duran and I came here to see, had been under Zerg control. In the battle, Duran had been killed, and my mind was nearly captured by the will of the swarm. Then, in my rage, I had destroyed the hybrid with a strange psionic attack. And now I was alone. No friends or allies, on a barren and lifeless planet, with Zerg forces massing in orbit.

Something flickered in my peripheral vision. My head whipped around, and sparks of PSI began to dance across my scythes. But it was only Duran's body, or what was left of it, materialized on the floor. His personal cloak had finally failed, revealing his mauled, bloody corpse The hybrid's spines had torn gaping holes in his chest and shoulders, exposing raw flesh and bone to the stale air.

But to my surprise, the body did not trigger an attack of bloodlust. Perhaps it was because I knew the man. Perhaps the hormones already pumping trough my body had nullified it, or perhaps my mind had somehow matured while I slept. Whatever the reason, I felt nothing but sorrow for the only person in the universe who seemed to share my interests.

But now there was no time to mourn. Each minute, I knew, brought the Zerg closer to me. I was beginning to sense individual commands, relayed from overlords to underlings. I quickly scanned the bloody, charred structure for anything useful. The only thing immediately noticeable was a gauss rifle, a Terran projectile weapon, lying near a severed human hand. The gun felt awkward in my scythed palm, but was certainly better than nothing. Though my psionically charged scythes were effective and potent weapons, they would be useless against Zerg flyers, which were sure to be abundant. Then, I slithered over to Duran's body. A few seconds of searching revealed what I desired: the small, black communication device.

I was ready to leave, when suddenly the lights of the compound began to flash red. "Warning! Warning!" blared a loud, automated voice, "Structural integrity of Chriopod-1225 is failing. Protoss subject is coming out of Cryo-hybernation. Commence the draining process."

One of the Stasis cells began to empty itself, revealing a slim Protoss female. I stood and stared for a moment. She would only slow me down. But then, how would I operate the gateway. I didn't like the notion of relying on my telepathic instinct for something like that. Even if I could open a warp gate, I might inadvertently send myself to a Protoss base. And if I ever wanted to interact with the Protoss in the future, an ally would be invaluable. So, slithering over to the stacis cell, I gave the Protoss a short mental prod.

The Protoss snapped into consciousness with the telepathic equivalent of a scream. Her eyes, soaked with fear, darted about her prison. At my sight, she gave another mental yelp, leaping backwards into the opposite wall. I backed away, trying to show that I meant her no harm. "Protoss," I said into her mind.

No response. Instead, She moved back to the center of the cell, and sat with her legs crossed. Closing her eyes, she began a soft mental chant. She was meditating. I had no time for this. I dug a little deeper into her mind, planting another message, "I mean you no harm."

"I very much doubt that, abomination."

Oh, look, she speaks. It was progress. "Protosss there is a Zerg brood massing in orbit. We can escape, but I need your help."

"I would rather die by the hand of the Zerg than ally myself with one such as you."

"I am not your enemy, the Zerg is. I need protection, help from your brethren, if I can get it." I brought my scythes down on the stasis cell, shattering the glass. The Protoss leapt backwards, her eyes glowing an angry orange. "Come, we have no time to waste."

She ignored me. "Very well," I said, turning towards the elevator. What more I could do? I could feel her trying to block my thoughts. "If you want to die here...."

"You're leaving?"

I stopped. I looked over my shoulder. "A Zerg brood is massing in orbit."

"Why should I believe you"

"Why should I lie?" I said. I had no clear idea where this conversation was going. There was something different about her thoughts, however.

"What do you need me for?"

"There's a Gateway near here. I went through it once before, but I'm not sure how to operate it."

For a moment, I thought I felt her mental barrier weaken. For a moment. There was no reply, and so, I again began towards the elevator. Suddenly, the Protoss called from behind me. "Does it seem a little... quiet, to you?"

I paused. I could no longer hear the wind or the rain outside. On the floor, I noticed three small, but vivid patches of sunlight which shone through the holes in the roof. A chill ran down my spine. Then a harsh, bone-chilling screech split the air around us. My nerve cords shuddered. Images of a flying, winged worm like creature flashed through my mind. A Mutalisk! "Come! We need to go. Now!" I shouted.

Suddenly, a green mass crashed through the roof, scattering the room with tiny spores of acidic razors. The Protoss leapt up from her meditation with uncanny speed and dove gracelessly behind a desk. Having no cover of my own, I put my face down, and let my hardened carapace do the rest. Tiny pinpricks of pain washed over me body. Fortunately, the microscopic razors had failed to pierce my armor, leaving only small, dark grooves in my hide.

My Protoss companion, abandoning all pretexts of mistrust, dashed past me and grabbed Duran's canister rifle. With strength unnatural for one in her condition in her condition, she leapt upwards, through the hole, onto the structure's metal roof. Probably not the best idea, but it was faster than the elevator. From the roof, she fired a shot at the mutalisk, and, judging from the earsplitting screech, was a fairly good marksman. I coiled myself like a spring and, gripping the gauss rifle in one hand and Duran's communicator in the other, threw myself after the Protoss. To my own surprise, I managed to clear the roof... And caught a glave worm square in the chest.

The impact of the mutalisk's attack sent me flying backwards, and my companion had to dive sideways to avoid the tumbling mass of flesh, blades, and acid. My chest and face now had thousands of thin cuts, which dripped with bright red blood. As the green cloud settled on the dusty ground, I painfully flipped upright. Almost instantly, by body my body flooded itself with endorphins, hiding any and all pain. Already the blood on my wounds had solidified into thousands of tough scabs, and had begun to heal.

The mutalisk reeled about in midair, and swooped downwards for another pass. Just before it could launch another glave worm at us, The Protoss fired another clip into its segmented carapace. The shell was deadly accurate, blasting off a good portion of the mutalisk's left wing. As the xenomorph careened overhead, I took aim with my gauss rifle. The last salvo of bullets proved to be too much for the beast's beaten body. Its bloody, oozing carcass crashed headlong into the dust, thrashed about, and then went still.

"Where's this gateway?" the Protoss said.

"That way." I pointed towards the distant, golden structure, "you can make it work, can't you?"

Her gaze turned to the gateway and the two pylon crystals. "It's been a very long time, but I believe I can," She said, leaping from the bunker's roof, and dashing towards the distant gateway.

I followed. I could sense the Zerg machinations in the back of my thoughts; I could feel Kerrigan's glee as her minions converged on us. It was only a matter of time.

Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, I felt an urge to ask my companion a simple question. "What is your name?"

"Arazori is my name," she said without looking back, and after a brief pause, "What is yours?"

That question stumped me. I did not answer, and she did not push me. I had more important things to worry about. My body, unfortunately, was not built for speed. My slither was sluggish, compared to Arazori's sprint. My twisted, shrunken, muscle-less legs, which I could only assume were genetic defects, would throw me off balance, drag on the ground, or even fall under my slithering body. I found that I could move with more speed if I used my scythes in a sort of clumsy gallop. I had covered about three-quarters of the distance when Arazori reached the gateway.

Then, a gigantic shadow fell over us and two Zerg overlords dropped through clouds overhead, rippling the air with a long, resonating, low pitched rumble. "Hurry," I urged Arazori, "Get in there and raise the gateway's shields!"

"What about you?" she called back.

"I need to defend the gateway. You need to open the warp gate." I said, turning towards he overlords, which were descending just behind me.

"This may take a little time," Arazori said from inside the Protoss structure.

But right now, my concern was elsewhere. The overlords touched ground about sixty yards away from me. Their tentacles extended downwards, and latched onto the earth, pulling its buoyant body as close as possible to the dusty soil. Then, from their cavernous shell, poured a small force of tiny doglike creatures with scythed claws. Zerglings. And one enormous, earthshaking beast, swinging two, tusk-like blades. An ultralisk. This small battalion of Zerg forces thundered towards me. My scythes crackled with psionic energy.

It was strange. I felt no fear, no uncertainty, no doubt, as I watched the aliens approach. With cool, steady accuracy, I aimed my gauss rifle, and let loose its bullets. One zergling fell before I expended my rifle's depleted ammo and tossed it away. "Hush... Patience, my children..." I heard a voice echo in the back of my mind. Almost instantly, the Zerg warriors slowed to a cautious crawl, and began to fan out in a wide semicircle about me. Crouching on my scythes, I assumed a defensive position. "Arazori," I said telepathically, "How close are you to opening a warp portal?"

"I have one open now. Its destination is the planet from which you came. Is that a problem?" The Protoss answered from inside the gateway.

"No its fine. Listen, I'm going to take care of the Zerg here. Then, you can lower the gateway's shields and let me pass through the warp portal. While I travel, the Gateway will have to defend you from Zerg attacks before you open a warp gate for yourself."

"How do you know that I won't just leave you here?"

I very good question, to which I didn't like the answer.

Before Arazori could reply, I detected a sharp Zerg command. Two Zergling broke formation, and charged at me. Instinct completely took over. My body snapped to the side, like a whip, and lunged towards the zergling on my left. It was so easy, to rip apart its armor, cleaving its head in two. I swept around just in time to catch the other zergling in mid leap. With one claw, I parried two slashes, and then brought the other up through the creature's gullet. Nothing moved, save for the twitching of my slaughtered foes.

At the urging of their overlord, the remaining nine zerglings converged upon me. And I was ready for them. This was my element, I now understood, as I dissected the Zergling attack. A primal instinct directed my body in its swift and savage ballet, effortlessly channeling its immense energy into precise, powerful strokes, reaping devastation wherever they fell. I was as light as the air, faster than the wind, and stronger than the gale. I was taken by the most serene feeling when the skirmish was over, when the last zergling had been slaughtered. Their claws had not once grazed my armor. My lungs filled with air, and then emptied slowly. My mind felt like it was sweating power. Slowly, calmly, inadvertently, I began to focus that power into a solid shell around my body. My eyes burned with an intense fire. Then, simultaneously, the ultralisk and I charged.

I ducked and dove sideways, evading a wide blow from the ultralisk's tusk. The next thing I knew, the beast was standing directly over me, and I was unable to dodge the, heavy, tree-trunk hoof that came down on my body. Suddenly, everything went numb. All sensations and thoughts, which before, came clear and sharp, were plunged into a vat of fluffy molasses. My mind throbbed with the effort of sustaining the psionic shield. The foot came down on me again, and my mind recoiled with a nasty shock. Luckily, I found the wherewithal to roll sideways before the foot could stomp a third time. My mind in a deep fog, I scrambled madly away from the Ultralisk, barely skirting another swipe from the ultralisk's tusks. Once a safe distance, I allowed my shield to fade away, relieving my mind of the burden.

Why wasn't the Ultralisk attacking? The answer came to me easily. Every minute this battle dragged on brought Zerg reinforcements closer to us. The ultralisk had nothing to lose by waiting, and I couldn't leave until it was dead. Well, actually, I could... No, I needed to end this as quickly as possible, and getting near that thing was suicide.

I needed a strategy, another way to attack this.

My scythes were not my only weapons. I remembered how I had killed the other hybrid. Closing my eyes, I extended my mind into the PSI, feeling its energy coil and writhe about me. Slowly, I began to summon that power, and focus it. I could feel the immense charge building behind my eyes. Then, when it felt like I could hold in no more, I shifted my focus to the Ultralisk's wide, gaping mouth.

The air crackled as the raw PSI surged through it, ending with a sharp explosion on the Zerg titan's face. It did not have the raw power of my Psionic storm, but was far more focused and far less tiring. Another. The Psionic attack blasted a way a good portion of the ultralisk's head and shell, leaving the creature half dead and quite blind. Now it charged, but my mind was already charging up another assault. This time, the PSI flowed more freely, blowing off a sizable hunk of leg and showering the ground with sharded carapace.

The ultralisk, limped on for a few more paces, before another PSI assault brought it crashing to the ground, unable to pick itself up again. Power welled in my mind, spilling over, gushing forth like water from a geyser. My rage was beyond control. It lanced from crevices in space, tearing through the air in a massive psionic storm that ripped the Ultralisk apart in a matter of seconds. I couldn't separate myself from the stream of PSI. It wasn't until the last reserves of my mind were spent that the storm finally died. Numb and exhausted, I fell onto my scythes.

There I stayed for I short time, gathering my strength. Then, I searched for Arazori's conscious, and, to my surprise, I found her still waiting in the gateway. There was no time to lose. "Arazori, drop the shields. I've dealt with these zerg."

"The shields are down. Hurry," Came her reply.

As fast as my sore body would take me, I slithered up the ramp into the gateway. After passing through the dark, metal corridor, I met Arazori in the structure's main chamber. "It is good to see you. Once we arrive at our destination, you must tell me more about yourself," she said.

I paused momentarily, "There really isn't much to tell." With that, I approached the warp crystal and hurled myself into its depths.

I had made it. I was free. I was safe.

For a second time I sailed through the blue netherworld. Then, with a thin, static zap, I was spit out of the warp portal onto the floor of an identical gateway. Except, it was not identical. I wasn't alone. Something moved at the edge of my vision. Someone gabbed my throat. I felt a searing blade of energy grazed my neck. And then a dark voice boomed in my mind. "Meet death, Abomination!"

***

**"You let the hybrid escape! Your negligence appalls me, cerebrate."**

**"'Let' is not the word I'd use."**

**"Remind me again. Why do I keep you alive?"**

**"Because you cannot control the Zerg broods on your own, my queen. Believe me, It was not my intention to see this creature slip from my grasp."**

**"So now what? Are you going to tell me that the hybrid single handedly defeated your entire brood?"**

**"The creature defeated twelve zerglings, an Ultralisk, and a mutalisk. And I need not explain to you the logistical issues of scouting an entire planet. We're lucky we encountered them at all. Sometimes I envy the Protoss and Terran, who can locate a boi-signature by pressing a button."**

**"Stop complaining."**

**"I'm sorry, my queen."**

**"Well, what of the Protoss? Did it escape too?"**

**"Yes, unfortunately. Though my forces razed the gateway, we found no trace of the Protoss female. She must have fled through a warp portal as well."**

**"So now what?"**

**"We keep our forces mobile, and wait for the next Hybrid to hatch. In the mean time, we must make do with this little goodie that I found."**

**"Ah, Cerebrate, you were holding out on me. So this mission wasn't a complete waste of time."**

**"Where would we be without secondary objectives? I expect, in the long run, this will be more useful to us than a single, lonely hybrid."**

**"It's no excuse for failure, but perhaps you're right. If there's nothing more to report, I'd like to begin immediately with our guest."**


	5. Part 4

"You think that he- that it- that this creature can be trusted?!"

"Yes I do, Zeratul."

"How can you? It is Zerg."

"He is both Zerg and Protoss."

"Kerrigan was both Zerg and Terran."

"Kerrigan had an agenda of her own. The hybrid doesn't."

"How can you know?"

"He said that he was only a day old. He's only looking out for himself at this point."

"And you believe him?"

"Why should I doubt him? I detected no deceit in his thoughts."

"Kerrigan was the same."

"Kerrigan was accomplished at this. She was demanding our help in a specific goal. The hybrid is after nothing but our protection."

"Protection from what?"

"The Zerg! They attacked us, Zeratul. The hybrid and I had to engage twelve zerglings, a mutalisk, and an ultralisk before we could escape."

"He is probably in league with them, or else a slave to Duran's will."

"You underestimate me, Zeratul. I most certainly would have sensed that. And Duran is dead. I was his body."

"Perhaps you overestimate your own capabilities. You were in stasis for almost two years."

"My mind is as sharp as ever."

"I simply cannot believe that this creature will bring anything other than misfortune."

"On the contrary, he could prove to be a powerful ally."

"Listen to yourself. You're arguing for it, for the abomination! Where has your sense gone? Have you fallen under its influence?"

"Of course I haven't!"

"It's strange that you would advocate trusting this creature after it nearly killed you."

"You can't believe that..."

"Do you know what it was like, to see the matriarch die in my arms? To find that someone I had known and trusted for centuries had been corrupted before my eyes? Have you any idea what that's like, to discover you were blind as your most trusted friend had always been evil's puppet?"

"Zeratul..."

"How can I believe anything you say?"

"Please. Just interrogate him. That's all I ask."

"Arazori I... Very well. I will interrogate it. But that is all..."

* * *

Out of the frying pan, and into the fire. Such was the story of my short, but eventful life. My mind was purged of the Zerg influence, but my body was attacked by a ravenous hybrid. I flee the wrath of a Zerg brood, only to find a psi blade pressed against my neck. Was this Arazori's doing? Did she intentionally warp me to another planet, into the arms of the Protoss? Or did they arrive on the forest moon in my absence? What were the odds of that a Protoss fleet had landed on that planet since I'd left? I shouldn't have trusted her. But whether she betrayed me or not, I had more important matters to attend to. Specifically, the energy blade slicing into my throat.

Marshaling the last of my mental stamina, I projected a shield around my body, and threw my weight sideways. There was a static buzz, and a PSI blade sliced clean through my shield, opening a wide gash on my breast plate. I whipped about, flailing wildly with my scythes. But no one was there. What? No, not possible. I shambled backwards, towards the gateway's control table. Hesitantly, I glanced downwards at my wound. Half of me expected it to be gone, but it was still there, and it still hurt. What was I fighting?

I sensed something, slight shift in the air. My scythes snapped upwards to guard against a slash that, as it turned out, was very, very real. Purple sparks fell from where the two blades met. Pushing the PSI blade away, I lunged forward with my other scythe. It found another shield. For an instant, a Protoss profile flashed from the darkness, and then dissolved away, back into shadow.

And then I knew. This was a dark templar: a Protoss stealth warrior, capable of wrapping himself in shadow and wielding the powers of the void. The air was spit by a sharp buzz. I again raised my scythes, but they did not catch anything. An instant later, I felt the warp blade slice into my opposite shoulder. Indescribable pain flooded through my upper body, until it was halted by a virtual tidal wave of endorphins. I recoiled away, holding my scythes ready. How could I fight what I couldn't see? Desperately, I tried to pull on my psionic powers, but my mind was exhausted. I was helpless.

There was no other alternative. In a gesture of surrender, I shuffled backward, away from the invisible templar and bowed. I spread my claws apart and bent as low to the ground as I possibly could, delivering a telepathic shout. "Stop! I mean you no harm! I seek the protection of the templar. I was chased here by the Zerg along with-"

I didn't feel the warp blade come down on my head. There was just a sudden numbness wetness. I saw blood, fluid, and fragments of armor fall before my eyes, things which were supposed to be inside my skull. I swayed as more blood poured down my face, filling my eyes and nostrils, dripping onto the floor. I could hear it, see it, but not feel it. My scythes flickered. No. Stay awake. Fight...

Suddenly, power began to shoot from the crystal above the gateway, converging in a shower of white-aqua sparks. With a flash of light, a warp rift opened in the center of the room and spat out Arazori. Without thinking, I lunged for her. Pain split my head as I moved. What I did was shameless and dishonorable, but what choice did I have? Grabbing her around the waste I held one of my scythes against her throat. "Reveal yourself, or this one dies." I shouted telepathically.

For a moment there was silence. I brushed the blood from my eyes. I wasn't bleeding as much anymore. That was a good thing, right? Then I saw a shape begin to materialize from the shadows. At first its form was indistinct and fuzzy, a distortion in the non-light. Then, from the darkness, emerged two points of bright orange light. A scaly, Protoss face solidified, beaten and hardened by the ages. A jagged bundle of severed nerve cords fell from the back of his head. The Protoss's body was hunched, and almost as beaten as his face. But there was power there. A dark brown cape and loincloth fluttered slightly in the air. A blade of raw, dark energy was being projected by a strange device on his arm. And from beneath the Protoss's heavy brows, those eyes; those bright orange eyes stared directly into mine.

"Zeratul!" Arazori blurted out.

Zeratul replied, but I could not hear his thoughts, nor could I detect any reaction from Arazori, other than a brief nod.

For a moment, the dark templar and I stared into each other's eyes. Under different circumstances, this encounter might have been funny. I could sense Zeratul strengthening his mental defenses, as if he expected me to attack his thoughts and memory. I, on the other hand, had thrown open the doors of my mind, willing Zeratul to see that I meant him no harm. True, he could ransack my thoughts, and perhaps take control of my mind, but he could also abandon Arazori and skewer me on his warp blade.

But the telepathic silence dragged on for several agonizing moments. I could feel Arazori's muscles tense beneath my fingers. And my head. My head began to throb. Pain was eating at my consciousness. I couldn't keep this up. Deciding it was now or never, I broke our silence. "Have the Protoss lost their honor; that they would strike one begging forgiveness for something he has never done? Are you so blinded by fear, that you see a foe when you encounter a friend? I am not you enemy." I shoved Arazori foreword, into Zeratul's arms, and again put my face to the floor.

For a moment, I waited. What would it feel like, I wondered, if he decided to kill me? Would I notice the warp blade as it split my head? Or would everything just go away? I waited. I felt a rough, invisible hand clasp me from behind, jerking me upright. There was a searing heat inches from my neck. "Walk!" came a harsh command.

My head was becoming foggy with pain as I slithered through the gateway's metal hallway, the warp blade pressed against my neck the entire time. Then outside.

It was early morning in a familiar grassy glade. This was the planet I had been born on, I realized. What were the odds? Through the pain, I registered the many Protoss warriors that surrounded me. Zealots. High Templar. Large, armored, mechanical quadrupeds: Dragoons. The Protoss shuffled uneasily in my presence. There was a quiet drone from overhead. I looked up, and saw a sleek, golden, Protoss ship. An arbiter, I somehow knew. Suddenly, Zeratul materialized behind me and released me, leaping agilely backwards.

There was a blue flash.

And then it was sundown. The sky was a dark crimson, and the surrounding forest had taken on a shady brown. I detected an invisible force field surrounding me. Beyond the force field, stood a virtual wall of dragoon walkers, their phase disruptors glowing ominously in the twilight. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my tail. I whipped about. Hovering behind me was a small, sleek robot, obviously of Protoss design. It was holding a syringe, attached to a large needle. Suddenly, I felt lightheaded. And there was no more pain.

"You have just been injected with an anesthetic," A voice resonated inside my mind.

I turned around, and found that Zeratul was standing just outside of the force field, his dark cape billowing in the wind. Arazori was behind him, now clad in golden robes, which flowed over her body like water over rocks. Briefly, I met her blue gaze, and something flew between us, like the footprint of a thought. I could not discern its meaning, but it clearly wasn't malevolent. I shrugged. To her left was a Protoss male I did not recognize.

"How long was I out?" I asked, glancing down at my wounds. They had not even begun to heal.

"You were not unconscious; you were in a stasis field."

"What?"

"We have the ability to isolate areas of space from time. You were suspended for approximately eight hours."

I nodded slowly, barely understanding. My mind seemed clouded, hazed by a comfortable complacency. The small part of me that still thought rationally realized that these must be side effects of the anesthetic. Or perhaps a drug injected along with the anesthetic. But whether my mental handicap was intentional or not, there was nothing I could do about it now. Focus. Focus. "What do you want?" I asked.

"What do you have to give us?"

I knew there was something… I couldn't think. Almost involuntarily, I took one of my long fingers and prodded around the inside of my chest cavity: a small, natural pouch conveniently created where two plates of armor intersected. My fingers brushed against something hard and metal. With a wet squelch, I removed the object from my chest. It was small, had a display screen and a few lights, and looked oddly familiar. Duran's communicator.

"What is that?" Zeratul asked, peering at the device.

"The communicator Duran used to contact his servants. I believe the humans who look after his hybrids have orders to call this device whenever a hybrid begins to hatch."

A telepathic murmur swept through the surrounding Protoss. Arazori was surprised, but

Zeratul looked incredulous, "How, perchance, did you come by that?"

"I took it off Duran's dead body."

The murmur grew to a roar. "Silence!" commanded Arazori, in a manner I had not yet seen in her.

For a moment, Zeratul simply stood there, his eyes closed, deep in thought. When his eyes opened again, they stood out like fire against what was now night. "Perhaps," he said, after a great pause, "you should relate your entire story."

And so I did. Thinking back on it, the story of my life was alarmingly short. I started with my first memories and my first thoughts. The man in the installation, and our one sided conversation, and how Duran killed him. Then there was Duran, who explained to me what I was. The warp jump. The hybrid. How Kerrigan attacked my mind, and how Duran saved me, at the cost of his own life. The way the Psionic storm tore the hybrid to shreds. And then my encounter with Arazori, and my battle with the Zerg. Every so often, Zeratul would stop to ask me to elaborate a point, or to provide a mental image. I complied to the best of my ability, though I felt more hazy by the minut. Occasionally Arazori had to help me.

By the time I had finished the stars were out, half shrouded by the glow of a large, green-blue planet. Nothing stirred. I could detect a hushed conference being held between Zeratul, Arazori, and the third high Templar, but they their words were shielded so that I could not hear. I sat motionless and waited.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they split apart, the unidentified Protoss looking distinctly angry, and Arazori glaring at him. Zeratul, on the other hand, seemed strangely impassive, his face betraying nothing, and his mind betraying even less. Silently, he pulled a small, golden remote from her loincloth. He pressed a button, and I felt a prick of pressure on my tail. The Probe had injected me with something. Zeratul pressed the remote again, and the force field around me dissolved. "We have decided that, for the time being, you are in the presence of friends," he said, "Our fleet is abandoning this planet. Our forces are being shuttled back to our ships as we speak, and, for that purpose, you have been injected with a sedative."

Suddenly, I became dizzy. My eyelids drooped, and I felt like I had just cast ten Psionic storms. I struggled to maintain my consciousness. A strong wind began to bend the trees. Zeratul walked forward, looking to the sky. "The shuttles are coming. We will attend to your injuries once you reach our ships," he said, his cape flapping like crow's wings. The dark templar reached forward and plucked Duran's communicator from my limp fingers.

The world was fading. I had fallen to the ground, though I didn't realize it. A bright blue glow from above marked the shuttle's arrival, and as the light descended to capture my body, my mind fell into darkness. And despite Zeratul's promise that I was among friends, and that he would look after me, I had to wonder whether or not I would wake up again.

* * *

"Welcome to the world, my pet. What is your purpose?"

"Wh-what?"

"Lets try again. Welcome to the world, my pet. What is your purpose?"

"I don't kno-"

"Wrong answer. Third time. Welcome to the world, my pet. What is your purpose?"

"M-my purpose is yours; I live to serve."

"Excellent, you learn quickly. Now let me hear it. Who are you?"

"I am your servant, my queen. What is your will?"

"Grovel before my feet."

"Of course."

"Ok, ok, enough groveling"

"And now, my queen?"

"Nothing, at the moment. I must devise a method to ensure your loyalty. We can't have a repeat of last time, can we?"

"I see the Hydralisk guards. Somewhat crude, wouldn't you think? I would've expected something more subtle from you, oh Queen of the Zerg."

"Sticks and stones, my pet. In time, I'm sure I'll find a way to make you mine- a way that I can be completely sure of. But until then, I can't have you disrupting my operations."

"Perhaps there is some way, if I proved to you my loyalty?"

"Perhaps. But not anytime soon. After all, you only just got back. I still don't know what moves you, what you care about, where your ultimate motive lies. You're a mystery to me, but a mystery I can now unravel at my leisure."

"Leisure is not a common commodity for you, my queen."

"For you, Duran, I can make the time."


	6. Part 5

_"In such a test there is one question I must ask... What is the most important thing to Samir Duran?"  
"Well, as I am very knowledgeable on that subject-"  
"The question is rhetorical, my servant. We both know the answer."  
"Of course."  
"It is a rather obvious answer: your precious little experiments. The Hybrids. You abandoned me. You risked my wrath. You pooled vast resources from god only knows where. You planed for decades, centuries, maybe. And you gave your own life, all for the sake of your hideous, mutated Xenomorphs."  
"I could not add anything more, my queen."  
"So on to the test"  
"On to the test"  
"Give me the location of all of your hybrids. Every installation. Every experiment. Every stasis cell."  
"You could, of course, remove this information forcibly from my mind."  
"But then I wouldn't know if I could trust you. You will give me their locations freely. Now."  
"As you wish."  
"Well, well, well. I must say, I'm surprised. I half expected you to pull some half assed attempt at deception. Cerabrate? Can you hear this?"  
"Loud and clear, my queen."  
"Take a portion of your brood to the 'Turalie' system. There you will find a hybrid facility. I want you to destroy any experiments you cannot infest and bend to your will."  
"My forces will be soon. It will take some time to open another warp rift."  
"As soon as possible, Cerebrate. Oh, and keep a close eye on Duran. He'll be coming with you."_

* * * * *

"Wake up," the telepathic message swept through me. My mind shook with its power. I tried to open my eyes, but nothing happened. My body was not my own. I could sense nothing beyond my own consciousness. Wherever I looked with my mind, I found a wall of dark fire, another being so vast and powerful that I didn't dare approach it, for fear that the barriers would close even further, burning away my mind until nothing was left.

"What is this? Where am I?" My shout echoed inside of my head.

"You will speak when spoken to, abomination." The voice bombed around my mind. I cowered away, looking for shelter and finding none. I wanted to shrink into nothing. Anything, to escape the resounding power voice.

A slight hole appeared in the mental barrier. Without thinking, I rushed through it. It led to my body, where I discovered another world of pain. My wounds had healed some, I could tell, but not enough. My chest and my head throbbed persistently, and the touch of the air stung exposed flesh like needles. My arms were spread wide, and held in place by something metal. A forcefield held my torso and tail still, and beyond my body, I could still sense the impenetrable mental wall. I couldn't move. I felt incomplete. My body was captive just as much as my mind was.

My eyes opened to see a dark council chamber, shrouded by a red haze. I was at the center of the room with two small pylons on either side, emitting the energy field which held me captive. In front of me, beyond the pylon's glow, sat seven Protoss figures, visible only by their glowing eyes. And immediately to my left and right stood, or rather floated, two of the most frightening beings I had ever seen. They bore a passing resemblance to Protoss, though I couldn't tell from where I hung. Their actual bodies were slim and dark, but they were enveloped by a fiery, crimson aura, saturating the air around them with raw, uninhibited power. Their eyes, the only parts clearly visible through their aura, burned like tiny suns. They were effigies of dark rage, their power only comparable to the will that controlled it. They were the creatures of nightmares, more terrifying to me than any Zerg breed. These beings, I could instantly tell, were responsible for the walls around my mind.

"Hybrid," said a muffled voice, which I recognized as Zeratul's. "Welcome to the Araklor. Before anything else is said, you should know that you are alive now only because you have won Arazori's trust, just as she has won mine. Give us any reason to believe that trust is misplaced, and our Dark Archons will tear your mind apart."

I glanced towards the spectral guards. Their eyes simmered dangerously. Would they let me speak? I wanted to find out. "So, what now?" I asked.

Another voice that I didn't recognize answered. "That is a difficult question, hybrid. I needn't tell you that many of us believe Zeratul was wrong to bring you here. Many of us want rid ourselves of you now, while you're still weak." The Protoss who spoke stepped from the shadows. It was the High Templar that I had seen alongside Zeratul and Arazori on the moon. "So that places you in a perilous situation. I see no reason to keep you alive, and unless you give us one, I don't believe that even Arazori could justify burdening ourselves with such danger."

I blinked; my injuries still pained me. I saw a pair of eyes shoot upwards, and the Protoss who was talking too me turned about to face the standing Protoss. It looked like they were arguing, though I couldn't hear them. Any telepathy not directed to me was blocked by the Dark Archons. More Protoss stood from the shadows. Though I could hear no words I could sense the intensity. It grew and grew, a low murmur, leaking through the mental barriers. I had to stop this. "I will not harm you!" I shouted.

The murmur stopped. The one Protoss I could see turned back to me. "Your words are meaningless. We will not be fooled by empty promises. We have already been too trusting. My friends, I was there they day we let another corrupted abomination infiltrate our ranks. What happened then? She killed Alderis and the Matriarch. She destroyed our fleets and scattered our people across the galaxy. I ask only that we not repeat our mistakes, that we destroy such abominations before they can-"

"That is enough, Judicator. Take your seat." Another Protoss stepped from the shadows, his eyes burning brightly. He was wearing a style of armor which I had not yet seen, more practical than Arazori's flowing robes, but more regal than a Zealot's armor or a Dark Templar's cloak.

The Judicator paused, and then nodded, sitting back down.

I wanted to thank this Protoss, but before I could say anything, he started speaking. "I must apologize for Paratheus. He is rather passionate, but he makes a valid argument. I am Korotas, the executor of this fleet, and I cannot justify keeping you alive unless I am certain that you can be trusted."

"I already gave you Duran's communicator," I said. "You can now know the location of every hybrid in the galaxy. What more can I offer to you? What more can I do?"

"No one denies that you were willing to help us while under our power," the Executor said softly. "But we need to know how you behave when Zeratul's warp blade isn't pressed against your throat."

I paused, considering. And then I spoke. "Since the day I was created, Executor, there has always been a blade against my neck, or a gun against my head, or claws trying to rip me apart. You Protess fear me, I can tell, and the Zerg have tried to enslave me. My creator is dead, killed by one of my brothers. I have no one, not my maker or my kin, and so I turn to aliens, the only allies open to me. If I betrayed you, where would I go? To the Zerg? Would I let the Queen of Blades turn men into one of her servants?"

I felt strength grow within me as I spoke. The I could see the Protoss eyes shining from the darkness. Korotas stood still, expressionless. I could not sense anything from the minds of my audience. Was I convincing them? I had to keep going.

"There are already hybrids waiting to be born under her control. You are enemies, yes? Do you think she will hesitate to use them against you? Other hybrids are being grown as we speak, ready from the start to serve her. I have already resisted her, made her my enemy. I do not want her to gain control of my brothers any more than you do. I can see that already things are different, that our mere presence has changed the balance of power in the universe. You need me, almost as much as I need you.

I faltered. Still they stared at me. What were they thinking? I wanted desperately for a glimpse at their minds. What more could I say to satisfy them. "Remember, I am part Protoss..." I finished weakly.

Silence.

Then Zeratul stood and stepped from the shadows. He nodded towards the Dark Archons, and the barrier around my mind instantly fell away. Pain flooded my mind. They had been holding it back. The psionic shackles evaporated, and I fell to the floor, breathing heavily. My muscles felt like they were tearing themselves; the smallest movement scent my head spinning. My vision darkened. I felt my face hit the floor.

I couldn't tell what happened next I couldn't quite tell. I was vaguely aware of lights passing above me, of being placed some kind of force field. They must have taken me though the corridors of their ship. A probe must have injected me with something. The last thing I remember was Arazori's voice echoing in my mind, "We're making you better..."

* * * * *

When I woke up, there was no more pain. I open my eyes. I was floating in a stasis cell filled with a thin aqua liquid, trough which I could easily see the room around me. Rows upon rows of similar bio-pods surrounded me, and several contained unconscious Protoss, some of which were visibly wounded. I looked down at myself and found that, except for a slight discoloration on my chest, I had completely healed.

It felt amazing just to no longer be burdened by fatigue or pain. My mind felt alive and vital; its stores of PSI, now recharged, gave my thought an electric crackle. I wanted to act, to release some of the pent up energy in my body. I took a few moments to explore myself, feeling my head and back- places that I couldn't see- with my fingers. They had healed as well, but I was curious to find a strange, metallic node attached to my temple. That bothered me a little, but since I couldn't figure out what it was, I decided to focus on other things.

Seeing no conscious Protoss, I began to explore the room telepathically. Almost instantly I sensed the presence of the two Dark Archons, standing guard in the corridor outside the room. Then, closer to me, I found the mind of a Protoss male. Once I knew where to look, I quickly spotted him walking through the rows of stasis cells. He was approaching me. "I see you're conscious. Good." He stopped at the base of the stasis cell and checked a display that I couldn't see clearly. "Your regeneration cycle is almost complete. I have sent a message to Korotas; he will send someone for you."

I nodded. "This is the medical ward correct? How long was I out? What is this thing on my head?"

The Protoss stared at me calmly. "That is corrtect. You regeneration cycle lasted a little under thirty two hours- remarkably fast by our standards. And as for the cybernetic node, it's nothing to worry about. It links you to our neural network, so we can contact you from a distance."

I looked at the Protoss closely and saw that he also had a small, glowing bundle of wires attached to his head.

"I heal quickly," I said.

"That much is evident. We've seen the Zerg regenerate before our eyes."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I said nothing. The silence was soon broken when the door slid open. It was Zeratul, and he had his warp blade powered up. They were taking no chances with. I waited apprehensively as he approached. "Is the hybrid ready to be discharged?" he said without looking at me.

"I only need to drain the tank," said the younger Protoss. He pressed a rapid series of buttons on the base of my stasis cell, and the liquid began to flow away. Once empty, the glass slid apart, allowing me to slither out of the cell.

"Come with me," Zeratul said. He turned briskly and walked towards the door.

I paused briefly to acknowledge the Protoss medic, and followed Zeratul from the room. Immediately outside we met the Dark Archons, who silently followed us as we marched through the corridors of the Protoss spaceship.

"Where are you lead-?"

"To the shuttle dock," Zertul said without turning around. "We have a mission for you."

"I want nothing more," I said.

Zeratu continued as if I hadn't spoken. "While we were healing you, we recieved a signal from Duran's communicator. A hybrid is reaching maturity on a small moon near the Turalie system. We are now in orbit, under a cloaking field to hide our presence. Normally we would deploy a small strike force to destroy the Terran facility, but it is defended by an expansive turret array perhaps four hundred well-equipped Terran mercenaries. I am not eager to waste Protoss lives. This is where you come it."

PSI shot down my scythes. "You're sending me on a suicide mission!" All I wanted was an ally. I thought I had convinced them. I was eager to help them, if only to secure my own life. Was this how they would treat me? Toss me into the jaws of a well armed enemy? Or did these Protoss honestly think I could defeat armies?

Zeratul spun about. "Calm yourself, hybrid, and allow me to explain. We told the Terrans that, rather than Duran, a hybrid would visit them on his behalf. We are sending you to the moon alone, but not to destroy. Your will infiltrate the Terran installation by impersonating Durran's emmissary. Your objective is to access to their hybrids."

I slowly separated my mind from the PSI, breathing heavily. I was wrong about Zeratul's intentions, but I was still agitated. "What then?"

"At your first opportunity, kill the hybrids. They are growing four. Once you have completed you mission, you may contact us at your discretion. We can evacuate you from the moon."

And so he crushed one of my secret hopes. Secretly I had hope that I would have an opportunity to recruit other hybrids to our cause. Surely I was not the only one of my kin free of Zerg influence. The Protoss were, after all, willing to recruit one hybrid. Perhaps they would recruit two or three. It would make me slightly less alone. But I realized, of course, that this was precisely what the Protoss wanted. I would only stay loyal to them so long as I had no other options, no other allies. The last thing the Protoss wanted was a small group of hybrids deciding that they no longer needed their overseers. I was under no illusions; I was not free with the Protoss. But I still had my mind and my body, and a chance to earn more.

I did not let my disappointment show. I could not destroy what was likely to be my only chance to secure the good will of the Protoss, and the chance to retake my freedom.

If Zeratul noticed anything in either my body or mind, he didn't show it. He simply turned and continued to walk. I followed him slowly. We walked in silence. All the while I prepared myself mentally. I knew that I could do this. I had killed a hybrid before. I could do it again if I had to.

And I had to. I had to. That's what everything comes to, when there's no more time to plan and no more room to maneuver.

* * * * *

_"Something troubles you, Zeratul?"  
"I don't know. I keep going over the events on Shakuras with Kerrigan. Reliving the moment accepted her help. She seemed, then, like the best of hopes for our people. She helped us purge our home world of the Zerg. She charged valiantly into battle, alongside our brethren no less. Without her, we all might have perished. And then she betrayed us. Twice. I keep searching for some hint that she gave of her true intensions. Some sliver of overlooked evidence. Something I missed."  
"We all missed it Zeratul. I had no more inkling of her motives than you did."  
"But Artanis did."  
"The Judicator? True. But we will never know whether his suspicions were more than dumb, shameless, luck."  
"Because Kerrigan killed him."  
"He was only going to tell us of her treachery after we had suppressed his rebellion."  
"And perhaps Paraithius is right about the hybrid."  
"Perhaps."  
"What do you think, Executor?"  
"I think we are in desperate times. The universe has changed. Do you know, Zeratul, that there once was a time when I would never have considered working with you, with one of your kind? When the dark ones were the greatest enemy to the Kalah. But the universe changed. Had we been faster to adapt, Aiur might have survived..."  
"You would open the door to another Kerrigan?"  
"I don't believe that the hybrid is another Kerrigan. Kerrigan had plans, goals. The hybrid strikes me as a very un-subtle creature. It is focused only on itself, on its immediate future. It will be loyal to us as long as it believes we represent its best interests."  
"What has happened to us? We are appeasing the abominations that we have tried so hard to destroy."  
"I still wonder whether there is a place for us in this new universe. To survive, we must change as well."  
"But by changing, do we lose what makes us who we are?"  
"I can not know, Zeratul. We do what we must. We cannot hope to do more."_


	7. Part 6

_"Executor. What a pleasure it is to see you."_

_"I understand that you are recovering well from your captivity with the Terrans."_

_"Well enough. The Terrans implanted a psionic inhibitor, but it was a simple matter to remove. Otherwise there was nothing. Nothing that won't go away in time."_

_"I'm glad to hear it."_

_"But that's not all you came to tell me, is it?"_

_"I have given orders to confine you to medical."_

_"I see. Did Zeratul approve them?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Then I suppose there's no one to appeal to. But fine, lock me away. If it makes you feel safe..."_

_"Please understand, this is a simple precaution."_

_"Simple precaution? What good would it do? How long do you plan to keep me imprisoned like this?"_

_"I cannot know. Tomorrow, perhaps, if the situation changes. When you will be released depends on many things outside of my control or knowledge."_

_"Do you honestly believe I am being possessed by the hybrid?"_

_"I have not known you for long, but I know Zeratul trusts you. Why that is he has never told me, and I don't expect you to tell me either. But to answer your question, no, I don't think so."_

_"Then why do you lock me up? You're no better than the judicators!"_

_"No Arazori. Judicators are different. They live their life with a certainty that they are doing everything right. That their perception is clearest, and their judgment final. I know better. We are all capable of error. I was there on Char, when Kerrigan killed the Matriarch. I know this better than most. And I must take precautions lest my inevitable errors doom us all."_

_"Who can you trust, if not yourself, Executor?"_

_"I trust my judgment, but I can be certain of nothing. Look around. Our leaders have been killed, our fleets scattered, our home world overrun. We are forming alliances with the Dark Templar, with humans, with Kerrigan, and now with hybrids. Nothing in our races experience has prepared us for this. So I tread cautiously when I can afford to."_

_"Executor, when Duran's forces captured me and took me away from this fleet, I lost two years of my life. I could do nothing while they extracted my DNA, they used it to create one of those monsters. I see the irony, that my life would be given back to me by one of the creatures that I had sworn myself to destroy, but I do not want to be imprisoned again, not so soon after reclaiming my freedom."_

_"My judgment still stands."_

_"Of course."_

* * *

"Follow me through these doors, and do not be shocked by the sight." Zeratul said, stopping in front a mechanical door at the end of the passage.

Then, at his command, the door slid open to reveal a glass elevator, beyond which was the most staggering view I had ever seen: the Arkalor's core. For the first time, I was aware of the sheer scale of this ship, larger by far than anything I had encountered before. It was like a great, hollow city. Great ribbons of psionic energy swept from one end of the chamber to the other, meeting at an obelisk at its center, where it was absorbed into the ship's body. The entire core thrummed with this energy, pulsing like a star's heart. Zeratul and I stepped into a glass elevator, which began to slide vertically along the Arkalor's interior. On the far wall, I could see other pods, which looked no bigger than insects at this distance, crawling up and down far side of the core.

Zeratul and I left the elevator near the bottom deck on the carrier, where we were met by two more Dark Archons. A brief walk took us to a docking bay. It was a large room with the far wall open to star-dotted blackness. A row of small, robotic aircraft were docked on platforms, drawing power from the ship, and a Protoss technician was examining one of them. He didn't seem to notice us enter. A golden shuttle hovered near the center of the docking bay, waiting for me.

Before I loaded into it, Zeratul stopped me. "This shuttle will take you as close to the Terran base as it can without being detected. They are located on an island, so you will likely have to swim a significant distance to reach them. I trust you are capable of that?"

I nodded.

"We are putting much faith you, hybrid, far more than many of us think is wise. Remember your mission. Tread carefully among the mercenaries. They believe that you represent Duran, and if they discover otherwise before your mission is complete, we will not risk the mission to intervene on your behalf."

So, if anything went wrong, I could count on nothing. What was new? "Is that all?" I said.

"Report to Korotas regularly; he'll be monitoring your activities from orbit. We will direct you however we can. I hope you succeed, for your sake as well as our own. Failure will bring unfortunate consequences upon all of us, but you particularly. Once you complete your mission, inform us and we will return you to our fleet with a dimensional recall."

I would be a liar if I said I was wholly complicit in this. Deep down, I wondered what would happen if I turned away the Protoss, and told the Terrans what was really happening- that a Protoss fleet was waiting in orbit to destroy them and their hybrids "I will do what I can to earn your trust."

Zeratul nodded. "Then go."

I slithered into the shuttle and watched the platform rise behind me, sealing me in the shuttle. The interior of the ship was almost completely bare, without windows, seats, or anything else, save for small display screen and a device which I assumed was for recharging Protoss shields. The ride down was a lot smoother than I expected; I did not realize that the shuttle had lifted off until the display screen told me so. There was a slight bump when we entered the atmosphere. After several silent hours I received a telepathic message from the Executor. "You have reached the landing point. We can track you from orbit and direct you to the island."

Suddenly, the floor began to drop. The roar of the wind filled the shuttle and began to whip about me, filling my eyes and nostrils with a salty sting. I slithered cautiously to the edge of the hanging platform and looked outwards, across the crests and ridges of the alien ocean, to the black island on the horizon. Then I looked down at the choppy water. There was no land. Did they want to make this difficult for me?

I remembered floating in the Protoss stasis cell and how easily I could control my body in the fluid. This was not nearly the same thing. However, I told myself that the oceans were not dangerous to me. I was Zerg. What are oceans to a race that can conquer the stars? Taking a deep breath, I leapt from the shuttle and plunged into the dark water.

My body reacted the instant it touched the water, sealing my nostrils shut and closing a solid, transparent membrane over my eyes. Within seconds, the need to breath disappeared. I sank faster than I had anticipated, and had to kick my tail hard in order to stay near the surface. My body was not built for swimming, but I found that if I spread my scythes and twisted my tail, I could keep myself afloat.

"I'm in the water," I said to the Protoss, "Lead me to the island."

With their help, I oriented myself and began to swim. At their urging, I dove deeper, where only the most sophisticated Terran sensors could identify me. My eyes adjusted to the surrounding light, or lack thereof, two luminescent points in an ocean of darkness. My scythes emitted a gentle glow, illuminating my immediate surroundings and little else.

I notice the ocean bottom rising just before the Protoss informed me of my proximity to the island. I swam deeper, my body adapting itself easily to the increased pressure. There were pockets of warm water over certain spots of the rock. Suddenly, a wall of rock materialized out of the darkness, and an intense blast of heat shot upwards from below me, rocketing me upwards and scalding the surface of my armor.

After a few minutes of hard swimming, I found myself on a rocky, reddish black beach, overlooked by a gently sloping mountain. A short distance inland, a cluster of missile turrets stood tall, guarding the sky. I knew that they were equipped with advanced sensors, and had no doubt detected me the instant I surfaced. The Terrans would be here to investigate soon. Giving the turrets little regard, I slithered up the slope for a view of the Terran base.

I found a jagged outcropping, from which I could see most of the south side of the island. The Terran base was perhaps two miles down the beach, on the edge of a harbor, and was larger than any other base I had seen. From the outcropping, I counted twelve large buildings, including a Star Port. The main base was overlooked by a bluff, on top of which the Terrans had installed intimidating fortifications, with siege tanks and even more turrets. I could see why the Protoss didn't want to assault them directly.

Could their base repel a Protoss attack if they had advanced warning? I wondered. What if they had the help of hybrids?

Suddenly, the air was split by a roar as two wraith fighters streaked overhead, leaving a contrail over the ridge of the mountain. Then I spotted a faint cloud of dust moving along the beach, signaling the approach of a vehicle. They were coming for me.

The Terran vehicle arrived on the beach just after I did, stopping with a gravely crunch. It was constructed from a reflective, black metal and had four solid tank treads, which left wide, coarse tracks in the sand. The sides of the jeep were heavily armored, but the top was open. Three Terrans climbed onto the beach, each clad in battle armor, which seemed to double their size. Long, powerful rifles were built into their arms, and their faces were hidden by reflective helmets.

Another human, obviously in charge, but without armor, stepped from the truck's front seat. He stood a head shorter than me, but regarded me with cool authority.

Briefly, I touched each of the humans' minds. Compared to the minds of Duran and the Protoss, they were scattered and unorganized. Thoughts flickered, bubbled, and died spontaneously, making them difficult to read. However, it was clear that they did not intend to shoot me, and at the moment, that was my central concern.

"You're Duran's emissary?" the commander said in a suave drawl.

I nodded.

"I am Commander McDowell, and I run this operation."

"I'm aware." I wanted to appear authoritative, and it worked.

"Pleasure," he bowed his head slightly, "And what may I call you?"

"'Emissary' is the only name I need."

"Very well," he replied. "I assume you want to see the Hybrids?"

Again I nodded.

McDowell appeared unfazed. If anything I had said unnerved him, he did not let it show in his body or mind. He knew what he was doing. It was not so much the way he organized the colony's defenses, but the way he treated me with a sort of vague, unconditional respect. It was the kind of attitude that would keep him safe around the ambitious and the dangerous- those that would generally seek his services. He was not a tactician or a soldier. He was a businessman.

With military formality, the marines led me into their vehicle. The seats were meant for Terran build, so I stood with the soldiers in the back. There was no conversation at all, though the soldiers seemed excited. They thought that they were about to get they payoff. I had no idea what Duran had promised them, though I doubted he intended to fulfill it. I, of course, had seen what happened to all of the others under Duran's employment. It seemed such a waste. There were so many. These humans didn't deserve to die.

As we sped across the lava flow, I gradually became more aware of the minds of the Terran base. We were still too far away for me to identify individual minds, but their excitement still buzzed in the air. There was a faint Protoss presence there as well, separate from the collective network of the orbiting fleet, from the alien specimens held captive in stasis cells. Like Arazori. My overseers hadn't told me to free them, but I wondered whether I should anyway. Perhaps they would be grateful. Unless the Terrans would become suspicious…

There was another presence, a powerful one, that I knew, instinctively, was one of the hybrids. And it was becoming more defined by the second. It must have been conscious, or near it at the very least.

As if on cue, McDowell's communicator buzzed. "Yes? It is? Good... No, no orders. Just keep the situation under control until we arrive... Yes, we picked up our employer's representative." He then turned to me and said, "You'll be happy to know that one of our specimens is conscious."

I responded with a simple command. "Hurry." The vehicle dutifully accelerated, but my mind was preoccupied with more important matters. Namely, finding a suitable pretext to kill the hybrid. There were four others on the island that were not yet mature, and although the Terrans accepted my authority, they would surely begin to question it if I began killing the creatures they were being paid to guard.

There was a sudden flash of telepathic pain, and its conscious dropped away. I was reminded vividly of the first moments of my life, when my umbilical tubes were severed.

Just outside of the base, our vehicle had to pass through a thick river of lava. The intense heat was no match for the tank's armor, as the treads trolled through the molten rock. A short distance upstream, there were several buildings built on the lava, probably harvesting energy.

The vehicle took us between two bunkers, which guarded entrance into the base. The fortifications looked just as formidable up close as they did from afar. Aside from the bunkers, tanks, and turrets, the base had several barracks and small factories for military production. On the opposite side of a small, paved courtyard stood a large, domed command center with a sensor array attached to the side. A starport was stationed in the center of a ring of turrets. Genetics labs were scattered around the more fortified areas of the base.

"I assume you'd like to see the hybrid?" the commander said, the vehicle skidding to a gravely halt outside one of the labs.

I responded with a curt nod. Following the soldiers' lead, I swung over the side of the vehicle slithered to the lab. The marines plodding along at my side. McDowell, without the benefit of their hydraulic armor, had to jog to keep up the pace.

The genetics lab appeared far more complex than lab where I had been created, abundant with flashing lights, buttons, and leavers. Desks and monitors displayed more information than one could possibly need. (Gene splicing errors, Psionic emissions, pulse and respiratory rates, brain activity, genetic stability, metabolic cycles, and so on…) The entire structure sparkled with the same cleanness as the Protoss sick bay. Three bio-cells stood at the center of the chamber. One of them was drained and contained an unconscious hybrid.

"This is our employer's emissary," McDowell announced to the genetic engineers, "Treat him with respect and tell him anything he wants to know."

The Terran scientists looked up from their work, and paled slightly when they looked at me. The first scientist to recover stepped forward dutifully with a wide grin, "I hope you find everything satisfactory, sir."

McDowell, grimaced slightly. "This is our chief geneticist, Richard Keston." I could sense the distain in his voice.

"We have created a marvelous creature," Keston continued. "It was not easy. There were problems at every step, but our team managed them creatively. Words cannot describe the brilliance of this vision. Pass my regards to your creator." He was trying to flatter me. He probably thought himself clever. I wanted to make it clear that I could not be manipulated.

"I assume you compensated for the cellular Phosphosychrate breakdown in the upper cerebrum caused by prolonged biostasis in the pre-developmental stages?" I said, ransacking a nearby geneticist's mind for the vocabulary.

The human, taken aback, paused for a beat before launching into a longwinded deposition about how exactly one grows a hybrid, his words laced with a satisfying sense of humility. I was, of course, curious about the hybrid's origins, but I was more concerned with its current state.

"How long will the hybrid remain unconscious?" I interrupted.

Keston stammered, "Uh, it's hard to know for sure. The psionic and neural emissions are currently stable. There's activity everywhere, but the structure of the brain is unlike anything we've ever seen. However, we could give it a stimulant if you want it conscious immediately."

"No, that will be fine for now." I said, slithering to the chamber, staring, thoughts churning.

The hybrid looked unlike any other I had seen. It was curled in a fetal position on the floor of the bio-pod, and obviously built to walk on all fours. Its hind legs had the structure of a Zergling's, tensed like a spring of raw muscle, and protected by two large, bony plates. Though the upper segment of its forearms were solid, they split at the elbow into two pairs of lower limbs. The lower of the two ended in razor-sharp talons while the upper pair exhibited dexterous Protoss hands. The hybrid's body was slim, compact, and heavily armored. A rope of nerve cords ran down his back, embedded in its dorsal carapace and protected by four rows of bladed spines. A flexible white reptilian tail drifted to and fro. It was a powerful body, made for combat and survival.

Slowly, I slithered around the growth chamber to look at the hybrid's face. It ended in a, dog-like snout, and heavy, saw toothed mandibles hung from either side. Its eyes faced forward, and were each ringed by a scaly knob of bone. A bulbous cranial plate covered the neck. A snarl would occasionally flicker across its lips, to frighten the enemies in its dream.

I could sense the echoes of the dream in my mind, the remnants of distant visions and emotions. Some were peaceful, others terrifying, and others triumphant. What would he wake up to?

I knew my task. Kill the hybrids, they had told me. Kill this hybrid. I hated my task, but what choice did I have?

Keston was following me nervously, trying to read my expression, while MacDowell stood dispassionately aside.

Should I ask them to keep the hybrid asleep? Surely they could do that with chemicals. I could wait for the cover of night and find all of the labs. Kill them all swiftly, in one fell stroke. Provided the Terrans did not have them guarded, which they probably did. I would have to stop them from raising the alarm. I didn't want to kill them. I didn't want to kill anybody. But if there was another way, why couldn't I see it?

I could only stare at this creature, delaying the decision. I decided that I would ask the Terrans to keep it sedated. But first I wanted to see its mind, to see another of my kind free of Zerg control. But then again, how could I be sure is was free? It looked peaceful enough… What had it done to deserve to be hunted before it was born? What had I done?

Perhaps, I thought desperately, perhaps if it was under Zerg control my task would be easier, if I wasn't destroying a consciousness like my own.

I extended a tendril of thought, and briefly brushed the hybrid's mind, careful, for I vividly remembered what happened the last time I made mental contact with a hybrid. But I was not attacked. The hybid's unconscious mind was a spontaneous mess of images. The fragments of dream became more lucid. Slowly, I penetrated the outer layers of its unconsciousness. "Can you hear me?" I said softly.

I felt a sudden flurry of mental activity. Confused images played across the hybrid's consciousness. The mind seemed to order itself, and fear shot through me. I fought to prevent my scythes from lighting up and alarming the Terrans. He was aware of me.

"Who are you?" His body twitched. His mind repeated the question over and over again. "Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?"

"I am a friend," I lied.

"What are you? (What are you? What are you?)"

"I'm like you."

"What am I?"

I had no answer. A snarl played across the hybrid's lips, revealing metallic, razor-edged fangs.

"We've detected a sharp increase in the Hybrid's neural activity," said a scientist.

"Get behind me!" My tone allowed no disobedience, and the humans nearly leapt away from whatever they were doing.

Then they hybrid's eyes flickered open. They glowed yellow. "Where is this? What am I? Who are you? What are they? What am I?" the questions swirled ever faster through his consciousness. He was looking at the humans. I could feel the bloodlust growing in his mind- the urge to kill. I knew it so well…

"Can you sedate him?" I asked Keston.

"From the our control panel, yes." He said, though I could tell he had no interest in sedating the creature. He had waited for years to see his creation awaken. He wasn't about to put it back to sleep.

The hybrid was growing ever more tense. He was fighting his bloodlust, his eyes locked on me. His mind was a confused mess of rage. I couldn't reach it, couldn't calm it.

"I don't see why this is necessary," McDowell said mildly. "The glass is unbreakable." Thankfully, he didn't move.

Keston, however, did. "Magnificent!" he exclaimed, ducking past my arm, a wide grin on his face.

Before I could even warn him, the hybrid was diving through the glass, its jaws aimed for his throat. I reacted with lightning speed. Lowering my body, I planted my scythes and twisted my tail, sweeping the damn scientist off his feet while simultaneously forcing him downward. Then I threw myself forward. The smaller hybrid sailed just over my frill. I whirled and lunged after it.

The hybrid turned around faster than I could have imagined and leapt to meet me in mid-pounce, its fangs bared in a feral snarl. It was a powerful impact. The two of us tumbled to the ground in a whirl of flesh and claws. It landed on top of me, his claws now crackling with PSI. Pain hot pain streaked across my face as those claws cut deep into my armor. But I was ready. Forgoing my scythes, I attacked the hybrid with my mind, blasting it off of my chest in a nimbus of raw fury. The hybrid landed in an unconscious heap, skidding to a stop at the feet of the astounded scientists, its body bound by orange cords of mental energy.

"Leave NOW!" I snarled. The humans didn't need to be told twice. Keston was the last to shamble out of the lab. He was clutching his left arm, which was bending where it shouldn't.

Once alone, I took a moment to assess my self. The hybrid left long, deep slashes across my face and chest, though thankfully none had penetrated my armor. I could feel myself healing already. Then I looked at the hybrid, his mind numbed by the maelstrom. It seemed so peaceful, but I could tell the mental tethers were fading.

I would never have a better opportunity. Forcing myself not to think, I slithered up to the hybrid's body.

The first slash barely grazed its armor.

The second left a shallow groove.

The third drew a fine trickle of blood; the fourth and fifth cut into flesh.

The thrill of spilling blood was almost more than I could handle, and I suddenly felt afraid. Was I built to revel in doing others' killing? I was becoming… something I hated. Fear gave me the strength to stop. For a moment I stopped and listened. I could feel a threat looming in the back of my consciousness. It was all too familiar.

* * *

"_Zerg! What are Zerg doing here!"_

"_I have no more insight than you, Judicator."_

"_It must have been the hybrid. It lured them here!"_

"_I doubt it. More likely it was one the hybrids grown on the planet."_

"_So what are we going to do?"_

"_We stick to the plan. We wait for our hybrid to kill the others and then evacuate him with a dimensional recall. It merely must be done before the Zerg break the Terrans' defenses."_

"_What if the hybrid betrays us?"_

"_Why would he? Arazori and this creature were fleeing from the Zerg when we stumbled upon them. He's not about to let himself be captured by them. Besides, I was not planning to tell him about the Zerg if I could avoid it."_

"_You deny the possibility that he could be working with them?"_

"_Yes."_

"_And what of the Zerg?"_

"_The Zerg are likely to be too preoccupied with the Terrans to pay us any notice, provided we do not intervene."_

" _I hope you're judgment is clear in this, executor."_

_

* * *

_

"_Protoss? What are the Protoss doing there?"_

"_We do not know, my queen."_

"_This is the last thing we need. How many are they?"_

"_It is difficult to say. Our scouts identified five arbiter class vessels, which could be hiding several dozen warships beneath their cloaking field. In addition, they seem to be accompanied by ragtag collection of Terran vessels. Inconvenient, but nowhere near a match for our brood."_

"_I see."_

"_What course of action should the cerebrate and I take, oh queen?"_

"_Regarding the Protoss? For now, watch them closely, but do not move to engage them. At least until we have some idea why they are here."_

"_My queen, I highly doubt this is a coincidence."_

"_Aren't you the sharp one, Duran? Of course it's not a coincidence. I expect they can detect the hybrids' presence in much the same way we can. This may cause us problems in the future, but so long as they don't engage us, the planet should be our primary concern. Unless you have any light you'd like to shed on this matter…"_

"_Well, I am merely curious, while you were infesting-"_

"_Perfecting, Duran. Perfecting."_

"_Of course, perfecting my body, did you happen to find a small black communication device? Approximately four inches long, of Terran build?"_

"_No, nothing like that. What was it?"_

"_It was my communicator. I used it to maintain contact with my laboratories. They all had orders to contact me when a hybrid was near maturity. I had assumed you confiscated it from me, and were planning to use it to verify my claims, but if this is the case…"_

"_Are you saying what I think you're saying?"_

"_A hybrid and a templar escaped through a gateway. If they had taken my device and made contact with the other Protoss…"_

"_Duran, your orders have changed. The Terrans on the planet can wait. Eliminate the Protoss with all speed. Do not let a single ship escape."_


End file.
